Dead baby, 2 fetuses found in Manila

A policeman examines the body of a newborn girl found in Port Area, Manila yesterday. MANNY MARCELO

MANILA, Philippines - The body of an infant and two fetuses were found in separate places in Manila yesterday, bringing the number of fetuses and dead babies found in the city to seven since Jan. 1.

“The number represents only those reported to the police. We do not have the exact figure on the number of aborted fetus in general, which may be even higher,” said Manila Police District homicide section chief Inspector Armando Macaraeg.

At a street corner in Port Area, children found the body of a newborn girl wrapped in a woman’s dress and placed in a plastic bag. The baby still had her umbilical cord attached. Police said no one saw who left the bag and they do not have information on who had recently given birth in the barangay.

In Gagalangin, Tondo, children gathering recyclables under the Del Fierro bridge of Estero de Sunog Apog found a floating box containing a dismembered fetus.

“This fetus could had come from an abortion clinic due to the manner the fetus was dismembered,” said a police investigator.

In Sta. Ana, a passerby discovered a fetus inside an empty bottle near a garbage dump. Police could not tell the gender of the fetus and estimated it at around one to two months old.

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Macaraeg said some recovered fetuses were intentionally left by the mother in crowded places such as churches and restrooms in shopping malls.

“It is possible these mothers were ashamed of what they had done to their babies and wanted people to give the fetuses decent burials,” he said.